The most striking feature of Lk's writing in comparison to the other gospels is its
universalism: the Good News is preached to all people of every age. Conzelmann wrote a
famous book on Lk entitled Die Mitte der Zeit, whose thesis was that Lk saw time in three
segments, first till the end of John the Baptist's mission, second the time of Jesus' ministry,
and third the time of the risen Christ. Howard Marshall plausibly suggests rather that the chief
purpose of Lk's writing a two-volume was to explain 'how we got here', to give Theophilus
avsfalei,a. If salvation was promised to the Jews, Christians might well wonder how they could
be on the right lines if the Jews had rejected the Gospel. So to explain this Lk stresses the
extent of salvation, extent in two planes, vertical and horizontal, that is, embracing past and
future ages, and in all the ages reaching out to all people. Two aspects are to be examined, the
universality and the concept of salvation in Lk.

1. The Universality of Salvation

a. Embracing past and future as well as present

1. Past.

a. Mt's infancy narratives set out to show the meaningof Jesus by presenting him as the second
David and the second Moses. Lk's show that Jesus forms an integral part in the continuum of
the history of Israel. Lk's gospel 'begins in mid-story' (Tannehill, p. 18). Thus it is stressed
that all the parents of the two boys are faithful to the Law, Zechariah is the embodiment of the
priesthood of Israel, the age of Simeon and Anna (and their fidelity to the Temple) symbolize
the fidelity of ancient Israel. In the Presentation scene this becomes a manor pre-occupation
(2.21, 22, 27, 39). The infancy narratives show the real true Israel at its best, says Fitzmyer.
Mary is the embodiment of the Poor of Yahweh, his special favourites, since he cares for the
lowly and humble. Further, the Baptist will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of
Elijah, the prophet of old who was to be the prophet of the last times. The canticles reiterate
that it is salvation to Israel that has come, the fulfilment of God's promises (1.54, 68, 77; 2.30,
32). This is the meaning of the Septuagintal language of Lk 1-2 (biblical phrases like 'Now the
time had come for her to give birth to a child', the parallelism which is constant, especially in
the canticles): it is as though these chapters are still part of the Old Testament.

b. From the beginning of his ministry Jesus is set in the context of fulfilment. In the
Temptations as Son of God he succeeds where Israel fell to temptation in the desert. At
Nazareth he proclaims the fulfilment of Isaiah's hope even as they watch. The great journey to
Jerusalem both mirrors Israel's great journey across the desert to the promised land and fulfills
the destiny of all the prophets that they must die at Jerusalem. The frequent dei/ makes sense
only as allusion to God's immutable plan of salvation.

One of Lk's favourite designations of Jesus is as a prophet, which places him among the
ancient prophets of Israel: Jesus compares himself with Elijah in his programmatic opening
speech at Nazareth, when he is anointed with the Spirit to preach to the poor. At the raising of
the boy at Naim he is hailed as a prohet. His death is likened to that of the prophets, and his
Ascension is assimilated to that of Elijah.

Thus there is a sense in which the reader feels that Jesus steps into an already-flowing stream
of history. One climax of this is the bracketting of the final scenes in Jerusalem by the laments
over the destrcution of Jerusalem which has failed to recognise the time of its deliverance
(19.39-44 and 23.27-32) - despite special calls to repentance, such as 13.1-9, a refusal which
will be constantly repeated in Acts. It is gentiles who take over the inheritance promised to
Irael. The kingdom is given 'to you', the disciples, not to Israel (12.32).

2. Future

Lk, alone of the evangelists, writes a 2-volume story in order to leave no doubt that the
Christian community carries on the work of Jesus. In the gospel the emphasis is strong and
constant that the disciples must follow their Master, perhaps particularly in the Passion
Narrative (there is no separation in Gethsemane, and the trial-scene there is specifically an
example to them of endurance of trial through prayer. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross
'behind him').

In detail there is a constant parallel between the ministry of Jesus and that of the apostles who
carry on his work. Both Jesus and the apostolic community start their work only when they
have received a visible manifestation of the Spirit (at the Baptism and at Pentecost
respectively). There is a carefully-wrought parallel between Jesus and Stephen:

It is because history is important as the sphere of the working-out of salvation that Lk no
longer looks impationetly towards the parousia. The intevening time matters! The kingdom of
God will not come by watching for it, but it is evnto.j u`mw/n (17.20-21). Lk stresses that the end
will not come soon (19.11; Ac 1.6). When he comes to Mk's warning about the persecution
before the final cataclysm, all Lk's accent is put on the triumphant witness of the Church
(21.13; 18.1-9) before the destruction of Jerusalem. An Acts this is, of course, what is
depicted as happening, until finally the history of the Church is left open-ended, with Paul's
reaching the 'ends of the earth' (=Rome), and is solemnly turningfor a third time from the Jews
to the gentiles.

b. Embracing all kinds and sexes

1. Both sexes

Lk carefully pairs men and women in his story:

Mary & Zechariah, Simon & Anna, the Widow of Zarephat & Naaman, Simon & the Woman
who was a sinner, a girl & a boy raised from the dead, the Good Samaritan & Martha-and-Mary, the Queen of the South & the Ninevites, kai' ivdou/ gunh. (13.11) & kai. ivdou/ av,nqrwpoj
(14.2). He is the only evangelist to mention the women who follow and minister to Jesus (8.1-3), and the Women of Jerusalem (23.55-56). In the Acts Ananias & Sapphira, Aeneas &
Tabitha, Dionysus & Damaris. At every level salvation is brought to women equally with men.

It is because of Lk's stress on the salvation of women as well as men that a woman, Mary, is
the model of believers. She accepts the message whereas Zechariah dobts (1.38). It is perhspas
for this reason that all criticism is removed from Jesus' family (no mention in 4.24 as there is in
Mk, of the failure of a prophet's own household or family to honour him). In the passage
corresponding to Mk 3.31-35 Lk carefully removes all suggestion that Jesus' own mother and
family are unfavourably contrast with the crowd listening to Jesus, and she is made rather the
model for the listener. Mary makes a feminine presence even at Pentecost (Ac 1.14).

2. The disadvantaged of many kinds

This is the chief theme of the Canticles of Mary and Zechariah, that salvation is proclaimed to
the oppressed. In Jesus' ministry there is special emphasis on:

The Poor - the Lukan beattitudes embrace the actually impoverished and oppressed,
whereas Mt concentrates on the 'poor in spirit'. This is coupled with Lk's special
warnings against the dangers and distractions of wealth.

Little children as opposed to the learned and the clever (10.21, as Mt)

Outcasts of Israel, such as shepherds (2.8-16), tax-collectors (18.10) and especially
Zacchaeus (19.1-10)

The crippled, the lame and the blind (14.13). The invitation to these is then illustrated
and reinforced by the parable of the Great Supper, which Mt uses differently, as an
example of the rejection of those who were originally called to the Kingdom (Mt 12.1-10).

Sinners: Peter as a sinner (5.8), the Woman at Simon's house (7.36-50), the Lost
Sheep and the Lost Coin (15.1-10, where Lk's accent is on the joy in heaven at the
return, rather than Mt's accent on the duty of disciples to search out and bring back the
sinner), the Prodigal Son (15.11-32), the Good Thief (23.39-43). It is impossible to
become a follower of Jesus without first acknowledging that one is a sinner.
Forgiveness of sins is a prime Lukan theme (the expression itself comes Mtx1, Mkx1,
Lkx3, Acx5).

Gentiles. Above all Lk emphasises that Jesus brings salvation to those outside Israel, 'a
light of revelation for the gentiles', in addition to and before 'glory for your people
Israel' (2.32). It is similarly suggested by the genealogy running not form Abraham but
from Adam. It is already threated in Jesus' 'Nazareth Manifesto' (4.24-27) and fulfilled
in the healing of the gentile centurion's boy (7.1-10, balanced in Ac by another gentile
centurion, Cornelius).

Significantly, in Lk there is no parallel to Mt's 10.3-6, forbidding the disciples to go
among the Samaritans. The Samaritans are especially welcomed in the story of the Ten
Lepers and in the parable of the Good Samaritan (corresponding to the mission to
Samaria mentioned Ac 8.4).

In the parable of the Great Supper Mt again concentrates on the destruction of the city
of those originally invited, and has messegers only into the crossroads, but Lk, having
had beggars and cripples brought in, has messengers go outside the city into the
highways and byways (Mt 22.7-10; Lk 1.21-23)

In the final charge to the apostles the risen Lord prepares for Ac by instructions to
preach repentance to all nations (24.47, already hinted at by the number of disciples
sent out in 10.1, seventy-two, corresponding to the traditional number of the nations of
the world)

The overall plan of Ac, the spread of the message from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, is already prepared in the gospel by the great journey to Jerusalem, which makes
Jerusalem the hinge of the two volumes.

2. The Concept of Salvation

a. A Lukan Conception

It is certainly not true that sw,thr swthri,a and cognate words are exclusively Lukan, but there
is a clear predominance of them in Lk. Mk already uses the verb 13 imes and Mt 14, but Lk
has 7 further uses which do not occur in etiher. And, apart from Jn 4.42-44, the cognate nouns
occur in the gospels only in Lk: sw,thr twice swthri,a thrice, and swth,rion twice (plus a total
between them of 9 times in Ac). The concept of a saviour has previously been used in two
ways:

Of God in the OT, as the Saviour of his people (especially in Deutero-Isaiah)

Of saviour-gods in the Roman Empire and oriental religions. It could be that the
second connotation is the reason why it is scarcely used of Jesus by the NT elsewhere
until the heavily hellenistic Pastoral Letters and 2 Peter. There it is often difficult to see
whether Jesus or God is being referred to as the Saviour. Similarly in Lk the Saviour is
primarily God, who has sent his promised salvation to his people (1.4, 7, 69, 71, 77;
3.6, possibly 2.30). In one instance only is it clearly Jesus, 'This day is born to us a
Saviour', 2.11). The concept is important as making the join between the OT
expectations and the fullilment in Jesus. Perhaps the most significant passage is at 3.6,
where Lk alone continues the quotation of Isaiah to include 'and all flesh shall see the
salvation of God' [note: not 'our God', which would be too nationalistic for Lk].

b. The Era of the Spirit

The importance of the Spirit in Lk has often been noted. Arguably this should be seen in
function of, as an adumbration of, the Spirit at work in the early Christian communities, so
prominent in Galatians, Romans and especially First Corinthians. One of the most noticeable
features of the early Christian communities must have been the workings of the Spirit among
them. Much of 1 Cor is taken up with Paul's attempts to control the riotous excesses of
activity in the Spirit at Corinth. In Ga the presence of the Spirit among them is appealed to as
an experiential datum, 'Would you say, then, that he who so lavishly sends the Spirit among
you and causes these miracles among you is doing this through your practice of the Law?'
(3.5). This presupposes that there were phenomena which needed an explanation. In Romans
the presence of the Spirit is appealed to in joy and confidence as a title to authorize Christians
to call God 'Abba'.

It must be the manifest presence of the Spirit in the communities which leads Lk to stress the
leadership of the Spirit in his account of the founding of the communities, and - one step
further back - in the ministry of Jesus himself. By contrast to Mk and Mt, the Baptism in Lk is
not so much a baptism as a temporal marker for the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus. The
arrest of John the Baptist has already been told, and the point of the event is the anointing with
the Spirit and the proclamation by the Bath Qol of the divine sonship and messianic kingship.
Each of the early pericopes which follows is ruled by the Spirit. Jesus goes to be tested in the
desert 'filled with the Spirit' (4.1) and begins to preach 'with the power of the Spirit in him
(4.14). The climax comes at Nazareth when he begins his programmatic sermon with the
Isaiah-quotation, 'The Spirit of the Lord is on me', and continues, 'This text is being fulfilled
today even while you are listening' (4.18, 21).

That this is the clue to how Lk sees the events is shown by the speeches in Ac, e.g. Peter's at
Cornelius' house, 'You know what happened all over Judaea, after Jesus of Nazareth began in
Galilee. God had anointed him with the holy Spirit and with power...' (Ac 10.37-38). This
should also be the reason for Lk why apostles must have been present with Jesus since the
baptism (Ac 1.22), that they had witnessed the anointing with the Spirit.

At the end of the gospel the apostles are told to remain in Jerusalem until they are clothed with
power from on high (24.46-49). This is fulfilled at Pentecost, and the early community is
guided at every step and every decision by the Spirit. Lk's emphasis on the Spirit in his gospel
is therefore a preparation for a similar emphasis in his account of the early Church.

Lk's hints of realised eschatology should also be seen in this light. The Day of the Lord is so
much less important to him that he divides up the great Markan eschatological discourse and
directs a large part of it to the destruction of Jerusalem, which is important in his theology, bth
as a sign of the failure of Judaism (cmpare the concluding warning of the Parable of Dives and
Lzarus) and as the moment of emancipation of Christianity from Judaism. At the trial scene,
similarly, Jesus directs the attention of the high priest not to the coming of the Lord but to the
immediate change, 'From now on the son of man will be seated at the right hand of the power
of God.'